Key Indicators For Asia And The Pacific 2021:
Asian Development Bank (ADB) released a report titled as the Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2021.
- The report demonstrated that the region made substantial progress in the last two decades with respect to several development targets.
- It presents comprehensive economic, financial, social and environmental statistics for ADB’s 49 regional members.
Poverty:
- The pandemic pushed 75-80 million people in the developing Asia-Pacific into extreme poverty in 2020.
- About 203 million people — 5.2% of developing Asia’s population — lived in extreme poverty as of 2017.
- Without Covid-19, that number would have declined to an estimated 2.6% in 2020.
Contribution to Global GDP:
- Asia and the Pacific’s economy has grown at a robust pace in recent years and contributed as much as 35% to global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in current US dollars in 2019.
- But Covid-19 took a toll just when weaker domestic investment and slowing global trade and economic activity started to challenge this momentum.
Household Income:
- A significant number of households engaged in business were severely affected by the pandemic.
- Among households engaged in agriculture or relying on wages and salary, more than half reported an increase in income, no change or a decrease of less than 26%.
Unemployment:
- As unemployment rates increased by at least 20% in 2020 due to the pandemic across the globe, the Asia-Pacific region lost an estimated 8% of working hours.
- As businesses were disrupted, many workers lost their jobs, leading to higher unemployment and underemployment rates.
Labour Force Participation: - From 2019 to 2020, labour force participation rates among women, on average, declined by 1.4%, while labour force participation rates among men declined by 0.8%.
- 71% of Asia-Pacific’s workforce is now in non-agricultural employment. From 2000-2019, the region’s non-agricultural employment rate grew to 71% from 52%, one of the fastest growth rates worldwide.
Sustainable Development:
- The pandemic is threatening Asia-Pacific’s progress toward critical targets under the United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
Children Related Data:
- The prevalence of undernourishment decreased from more than 521 million people in 2001 to 316 million in 2019.
- Almost all learners in the region were affected by closure of schools during the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Despite efforts to continue school activities through remote learning, poorer students suffered greater disruption to their education during the pandemic.
